Calcutta HC Reduces Train Robbery Conviction From Murder to Section 328 IPC, Flags Railway TTE Dereliction in Teesta Torsa Express Poisoning Death

Reducing a life sentence to seven years, the Calcutta High Court held Section 302 IPC not attracted where appellants intended only theft, while ordering a copy of its judgment to Eastern Railway’s General Manager over TTE misconduct.

A Division Bench of the High Court at Calcutta, comprising Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Biswaroop Chowdhury, on 7 July 2026 allowed in part two criminal appeals challenging convictions arising from a poisoning-and-robbery on the Teesta Torsa Express in February 2009. The court set aside the conviction of both appellants—Aloke Ghosh and Gopal Mistry—under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC, replacing it with a conviction limited to Section 328 read with Section 34, carrying a sentence of seven years already upheld by the trial court. The bench acquitted them of the charges under Sections 379/34 and 307/34 as unproved. Alongside the acquittals, the court directed that a copy of its judgment be forwarded to the General Manager of Eastern Railway, censuring Travelling Ticket Examiners for illegally selling unreserved berths—conduct it described as a root cause of the crime.

The Crime on the Teesta Torsa Express, 23 February 2009

On the night of 23 February 2009, two passengers—Arun Chakraborty and Sunil Kumar Das—boarded the Teesta Torsa Express (Train No. 3142 Down, New Jalpaiguri to Sealdah) on unreserved tickets. Following what the court described as a practice common on such trains, they secured berths in Coach S-8 by bribing the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) on duty.

The appellants, according to the prosecution, befriended the two passengers and offered them food and drink laced with a heavy dose of sleeping medication. Both victims fell into a semi-conscious state and were robbed of their valuables. Head Constables of the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Sealdah Station—PW-5 and PW-6—discovered the two men in that condition on the berth. Sunil Kumar Das was found dead on removal for medical attention, the cause attributed to an unknown poison that interacted fatally with pre-existing co-morbidities. Arun Chakraborty survived after nine days of hospitalisation.

Two FIRs were registered. The first, FIR No. 16 of 2009 dated 23 February 2009, was lodged at Sealdah GRPS on the complaint of GRP officer PW-1, Pranab Kumar Mitra. A second FIR was registered at Entali Police Station on the complaint of the son of the deceased, Sunil Kumar Das.

Investigation Failures the Bench Found Inexcusable

The court, speaking through Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, catalogued the lapses of the Investigating Officer, PW-14 Satyajit Banerjee, in terms that left little doubt about the bench’s assessment.

The viscera of the deceased was never sent for forensic analysis. There was no evidence it was collected at all. The Investigating Officer confined himself to the post-mortem report and did not obtain the medical records or bed-head tickets of the surviving victim, Arun Chakraborty, from the hospital. The bench called this lapse “rather inexcusable.”

Three months after Chakraborty was discharged from hospital, a photograph from police records was shown to him. He identified one of the appellants, Aloke Ghosh, who was then taken into custody. Several months later, Chakraborty was brought to the CID office at Bhabani Bhawan in Calcutta, where he gave a description of the second appellant, Gopal Mistry. A portrait was prepared, Mistry was traced, and a statement was recorded from him under Section 27 of the Evidence Act. In that statement, Mistry confessed to the crime with Aloke Ghosh. The bench noted plainly that such a confession under Section 27 is not admissible as proof of guilt.

The seizure of stolen articles compounded the evidentiary problems. PW-5, the sole witness to the seizure of the deceased’s personal effects, deposed before the trial court that he found the articles in a police van and was made to sign a blank document. Seizure witnesses could not identify any of the recovered articles. A wrist watch appeared to have been recovered both from Gopal Mistry’s house and from the place of occurrence—a discrepancy the judgment flags without resolution.

Why the Court Held Section 302 IPC Not Attracted

The Second Additional Sessions Judge, Sealdah, had convicted both appellants under Sections 328/34, 379/34, 307/34, and 302/34 of the IPC on 10 July 2017, with sentences pronounced on 11 July 2017. The conviction under Section 302/34 carried life imprisonment.

The Division Bench disagreed with the murder conviction. The court reasoned that the appellants’ motive was theft and robbery, not homicide. The death of Sunil Kumar Das, while directly caused by the poisoning, was a consequence of the victim’s pre-existing co-morbidities rather than an intended outcome. The bench held that “the ingredients of Section 302 of the I.P.C. are not even remotely attracted.” At most, the appellants were liable under Section 328 IPC, which addresses administering poison or any stupefying substance with intent to commit an offence.

The court was equally clear that the charges under Sections 379/34 (theft) and 307/34 (attempt to murder) were not proved to the required standard, given the evidentiary gaps—particularly the absence of reliable seizure evidence and the inadmissibility of Mistry’s Section 27 statement as substantive proof.

At the same time, the bench declined to extend leniency on Section 328. Despite the investigation failures, the court held that the appellants had acted with complete disregard for the life and liberty of their victims and that deterrent treatment was warranted for the conduct itself. The seven-year sentence under Section 328/34, as confirmed by the trial court, was affirmed.

The TTE Dereliction and the Railway Direction

The court did not confine its concern to the criminal conduct of the appellants or the failures of the police. It devoted substantial attention to the role of the TTEs aboard the Teesta Torsa Express in creating the conditions for the crime.

The two victims had boarded on unreserved tickets and obtained berths by bribing the TTE. The bench described this as a systemic practice and held that the dereliction of PW-4, the TTE on duty, and of other TTEs preceding and succeeding him on the journey from New Jalpaiguri to Sealdah, was a matter of “grave and serious concern.” The court observed that TTEs who sell empty berths “like vegetables in a market” create access for criminals to vulnerable passengers in enclosed, overnight rail environments.

The bench expressed the view that there are many unreported cases of serious medical harm to victims of petty theft on trains, tracing the origin of such crimes to the conduct of TTEs. It stated that the untimely death of Sunil Kumar Das was, at least in part, a consequence of the TTE’s dereliction in allowing the victims to board and occupy berths irregularly.

Accordingly, the court directed that a copy of the judgment be sent to the General Manager of Eastern Railway and, significantly, to other railways across the country, to ensure maximum available penalties are imposed on TTEs found selling berths in this manner. This direction is separate from the criminal verdict and targets the railway administration directly.

Police Investigation Also Drawn Into the Court’s Censure

Beyond the TTE issue, the bench expressed its expectation that police authorities take “more sincere, diligent and devoted steps” when investigating crimes on trains. The court placed the inadequate investigation—particularly the failure to conduct FSL analysis of the viscera and the failure to collect hospital records of the surviving victim—at the centre of its difficulties in sustaining the higher charges. The implication, stated directly in the judgment, is that the prosecution’s inability to prove sections beyond Section 328 was substantially of its own making.

Outcome

Both appeals—C.R.A. 498 of 2017 (Aloke Ghosh) and C.R.A. 511 of 2017 (Gopal Mistry)—were allowed in part. The convictions under Sections 302/34, 379/34, and 307/34 IPC were set aside. The conviction under Section 328/34 IPC for seven years was upheld.

The appellants’ counsel informed the court that both had already served ten and sixteen years respectively in custody. The bench directed that both appellants be set at liberty forthwith, if not wanted in any other case, upon execution of a bond to the satisfaction of the trial court. The bond is to remain in force for six months under Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, corresponding to Section 481 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

A copy of the judgment is to be transmitted to the court below, and the trial court records are to be returned at once. The court also directed that the judgment copy be forwarded to the General Manager of Eastern Railway and other railways for necessary action on the TTE dereliction issue.